Brazil's Experience of Building a Food and Nutrition

Effective public policies and active citizenship Brazil´s experience of building a Food and Nutrition Security System Effective Public Policies and Active Citizenship: Brazil´s experience of building a Food and Nutrition Security System Abrandh and Oxfam, 2012. Authors Marília Mendonça Leão Renato S. Maluf Review and contributions from Oxfam Simon Ticehurst Muriel Saragoussi Juana Lucini Carlos Aguilar Graphic design Marilda Donatelli Cover photo Effective public policies and active citizenship Gilvan Barreto/Oxfam Editors Brazilian Action for Nutrition and Human Rigths (ABRANDH) Oxfam Brazil’s experience of building a Food and Nutrition Security System L437c Leão, Marília. Effective Public Policies and Active Citizenship: Brazil´s experience of building a Food and Nutrition Security System / Marília Leão; Renato S. Maluf – Brasília: ABRANDH, 2012. 73 p. : il. ISBN 978-1-78077-557-9 1. Segurança alimentar - Brasil. 2. Nutrição - Brasil. I. Maluf, Renato S. II Título. CDD 363.8 1st Edition Brasília, 2012 This publication is licensed under a license Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. Marília Leão and Renato S. Maluf Effective public policies and active citizenship Brazil’s experience of building a Food and Nutrition Security System English translation 2013 This paper describes the path toward building a new governance framework for the provision of public policies that were able to initiate a virtuous cycle for the progressive elimination of hunger and poverty in Brazil. Contents Executive Summary 6 Introduction 9 Objectives and scope of the document 11 1. Food and Nutrition Security and the Human Right to Adequate Food: the path taken 13 2. The great Brazilian challenge: to eradicate poverty and social inequality 21 3. A new governance to ensure the human right to adequate food 27 4. What is CONSEA and how does social participation take place? 35 5. Food and nutrition security: concepts and principles in Brazil 45 6. From the Zero Hunger Strategy to the Brazil without Extreme Poverty Program 51 7. Lessons learned from the Brazilian experience 59 Thinking the Future 63 Bibliographic References 67 Acronyms 69 List of charts and figures 70 Annex - CONSEA’s Members 71 Executive Summary 1. Brazil has achieved promising results in the fight against hunger and poverty. This paper describes the path toward building a new governance framework for the provision of public policies that initiated a virtuous cycle for the progressive elimination of hunger and poverty. However, it is important to emphasize that the country continues to be characterized by dynamics that generate inequalities and threaten social and environmental justice. 2. The paper explains how Brazil has sought to find original solutions to eliminate hunger and poverty, imposing on the State the obligation to implement public policies that guarantee the fundamental rights of the human being: the right to minimum income, food, health, education and work. The document is addressed to people and organizations interested in learning about the strategies that the country has been adopting to ensure food and nutrition security and sovereignty as well as the human right to adequate food. 3. The country’s redemocratization process, which started in the mid-1980s, was instrumental in forging the current relations between the State and civil society. The 1988 Constitution guaranteed social, civil and political rights that forced the Brazilian State to recognize the need to reorganize its structure and governance in order to fulfill its new obligations. Moreover, the 1988 Constitution ensured new forms of participation in public policies through councils and social control policies, while enabling partnerships between the public sector and the nonprofit private sector. A new arena for social dialogue has been established. | 6 | 4. It was evident that the necessary changes to public institutions transcended the boundaries of administrative and financial reform, requiring a more comprehensive reformulation and expanding of the concepts of the various government sectors and their corresponding action. Civil society has always been present and played a leading role in this process of reconstruction and expansion of public institutions, with a view to ensuring the newly achieved rights. 5. The systemic approach was the option of various sectors, possibly because it facilitates the regulation of inter-federative coordination - federal, state and municipal - and inter-sectoral management, where the roles and responsibilities of each can be clearly defined and the autonomy of each federative entity preserved. The adoption of a “national system” for the provision of public policies was also in tune with the national trend of understanding the various sectors of society in an inter-dependent and indivisible way. For Brazilians the concept of food and nutrition security, in its broadest sense, is the result of the realization of the right to food (regular and permanent access to adequate food for all) in the conditions under which food is produced and sold, without compromising other rights such as housing, health, education, income, environment, labor, transportation, employment, leisure, freedom, and land access and tenure. 6. The Zero Hunger Project was originally conceived in 2001 by a nonprofit civil society organization interested in contributing to the formulation of a National Food and Nutrition Security policy that was still lacking in the country. The project, which was adopted by Lula´s administration in 2003, defined the fight against hunger and poverty as a political priority and paved the way for the development of legal instruments that would ensure the continuity of policies and programs targeted at the poor. In 2006, the Organic Law on Food Security (LOSAN) created the National Food and Nutrition Security System (SISAN), with the aim to guarantee and protect the human right to adequate food. It is important to note that LOSAN has a strong human rights approach, placing human dignity and empowerment at the core of discussions on public policy and strengthening relations between governments and civil society. It also launched the basis for the Constitution to include the right to food in the list of other social rights which had already been secured, and which finally happened in 2010. 7. The mandate of the National Food and Nutrition Security System (SISAN) is to organize and strengthen the institutions of the Brazilian State and create formal spaces for social participation through Food and Nutrition Security Councils (CONSEA) in designing, influencing and monitoring public policies in the field | 7 | of food and nutrition security and sovereignty. This paper presents the modus operandi and inter-relations between the governance system forums and civil society participation. It also presents the legal instruments that make up the reference framework governing the human right to adequate food in Brazil. 8. Some of the key lessons learned from this historic process include: (i) the importance of participatory pacts related to concepts and principles; (ii) the appropriateness of the choice of a systemic and intersectoral approach as a way to guarantee the human right to adequate food and promote food and nutrition security; (iii) the relevant role of civil society ensured through formal spaces of social dialogue (CONSEAs); (iv) the importance of the State putting the protection of human rights above market interests; (v) the necessary practice of intersectoral coordination in the design and management of public policies on food and nutrition security; (vi) the strategic role of women in the struggle to guarantee food sovereignty as well as the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources; and (vii) the respect for and guarantee of ethno-development principles in the design and implementation of public policies for indigenous peoples, blacks, traditional peoples and communities. 9. Despite the undeniable progress made, many challenges still remain on the Brazilian development agenda. The existing social inequality is incompatible with the country’s current level of economic development. The number of socially vulnerable people is still high, and they have no access to all the public programs to which they are entitled. Moreover, there is a recurring effort from conservative sectors to weaken and criminalize the social movements and organizations fighting for social and environmental justice, which threatens to undermine Brazilian democracy. 10. The paper concludes that the progress made by Brazil in the fight against hunger and poverty resulted from the combination of the interests of government and civil society through a process of collective, participatory and democratic construction. The continuity of the main public policies that have contributed to this progress and the convergence of political and social forces are indispensable conditions to overcoming the challenges that still hinder the elimination of all forms of social inequality and violation of rights. | 8 | Effective public policies and active citizenship Brazil’s experience of building a Food and Nutrition Security System1 By Marília Leão and Renato S. Maluf2 “We will never achieve peace in a world divided into abundance and deprivation, luxury and poverty, waste and hunger. We must put an end to this social inequality.” Josué de Castro Introduction The results

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